Evanora Pearce
GLITS 311
Arduini
December 11 2023
Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Scott Pilgrim’s life is framed as one with a general lack of ambition and direction from the first scene of the movie Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, directed by Edgar Wright. The movie was released in 2010, becoming a modern cult classic among those who were fans of the original comic book series by Bryan Lee O'Malley. As the characters are introduced, the viewer learns that Scott (Michael Cera) is 22 years old and dating a high schooler. Soon after, he has visions of the “girl of his dreams,” (Wright 2010), and Ramona Flowers’ (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) character is established. As she is portrayed as spontaneous and sarcastic, Scott immediately falls head over heels for her. To his dismay, he finds that in order to date her, he must defeat her “seven evil exes,” (Wright). If this story sounds familiar, it is because it takes ideas from Dante’s Divine Comedy, in which he must go through Inferno and Purgatorio in order to reach Paradiso. In this, instead of having to defeat evil exes, Dante must make his way through and overcome the seven deadly sins; these sins are pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth. Even the beginning lines of Inferno are similar to the situation in which Scott finds himself in: “When I had journeyed half of our life’s way, I found myself within a shadowed forest, for I had lost the path that does not stray.” (Alighieri, Canto 1, lines 1-3). Dante suddenly finds himself all alone in an unfamiliar environment after losing sight of what his life’s purpose is. Scott’s predicament is similar, in that while showing Knives Chau—his high school aged girlfriend—the house he grew up in, the scenery changes with a flash of white light, and Scott is transported to a barren landscape with only a singular cactus. He states that he is “so alone”, however a woman—recognizable as Ramona Flowers—rollerblades by and says “You’re not alone. You’re just having some idiotic dream,” (Wright). This is similar to the introduction of the poet Virgil in Inferno. Throughout the movie, which is full of old video game and music references, Scott gains the true meaning of his existence through fighting all of these exes and sins, much like Dante does in his Divine Comedy..
The parallels between The Divine Comedy and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World show themselves through clear interpretations of each of the main characters. Scott, as the main character who has lost his way in life, is—ironically—Dante the Pilgrim. The ghost of Roman poet Virgil, whose purpose is to guide Dante towards Paradiso, can be identified in the movie as Ramona Flowers. In each of her appearances, there is an aspect of fantasy and other-worldness about her, similar to how the ghost of Virgil appears to Dante. In one such instance, she leads Scott towards an unattached door in the middle of a snow field, inside of which they find themselves in Ramona’s house. This instance is similar to how Virgil leads Dante out of the valley. As well as this, Scott feels as though he must pursue Flowers; she appears to be his life’s purpose. His roommate, Wallace (Keiran Culkin), even states, “You have to overcome any and all obstacles that lie in your path. You can do it. Be with her! It’s your destiny.” (Wright). This is akin to how Dante must first overcome all of the seven sins in order to live his life and find his true purpose.
Scott is first introduced to the first of Ramona’s evil exes at a music show that his band is performing at. Matthew Patel is Flowers’ ex from middle school, and he has an extremely over-the-top entrance, complete with a full song and dance routine. Patel enters the fight with Scott certain that he is going to win, stating “I’m talking the talk because I know I’m slick,” (Wright). All of these aspects make him most closely aligned with the deadly sin of pride. As well as this, he is the first ex, and pride is most commonly known as the first sin out of the seven.
After getting used to the idea that he must defeat each of Ramona’s exes, they have an off-chance run in with her second ex, an action movie star named Lucas Lee (Chris Evans). His character portrays the sin of sloth, as the fight takes place between Scott and Lee’s stunt doubles while Lee goes to hang out in his trailer and drink coffee. The lack of ambition behind Lee’s fight aligns him most with this sin, as well as the fact that Scott defeats him by tricking him into bailing on a big skate trick, not even bothering to finish.
For Ramona’s third ex that Scott must defeat, the viewer is introduced to Todd Ingram, who, incidentally, is now dating one of Scott’s own exes, Envy Adams. Todd is characterized by his mind-reading powers that he gains from being a seemingly devout vegan. Throughout their fight, he is shown as a glutton for power. He shows this sin by showing that he wants to defeat Scott because he is dating Envy; in this he holds power over Scott. His defeat is also due to being a glutton, when it is revealed that he has not been a strict vegan, causing him to lose his mind-reading powers. Scott then headbutts Todd so hard that he then explodes into a pile of coins.
“Every pilgrim reaches the end of his journey, some sooner than others” (Wright). This line is spoken to Scott by Roxy Richter, who personifies the sin of lust. Richter is Ramona’s only female ex, and the one that Scott seems most threatened by. Her fight with him is mostly fought by Ramona, who puppets Scott’s hands to strike the blows against Richter. The reasoning behind her being most closely related to the sin of lust is because the entire exchange between the three of them is very sexually charged. As well as this, the defeat of her character is also related to the act of sex and further solidifies the idea that she represents lust.
The next two exes are the Katayanagi twins. In the movie, they play a much smaller role than they do in the comics, but the premise for their characters is that Ramona cheated on one of the twins with the other while they were together. For this reason, they are collectively the sins of envy and anger. They are jealous of Ramona spending all this time with Scott, and therefore challenge him and his band to the head-to-head battle of the bands that we see in the movie. Scott’s band wins, and two more of Ramona’s evil exes are defeated.
The final battle between the last of Ramona’s exes and Scott happens with Gideon Graves. He represents the sin of greed, as he is possessive of Ramona when she gets back together with him. Graves seems to treat Ramona as a sort of accessory that makes him look better, while she actually had feelings for him. His greed here is shown because he can’t just give up what he has lost, but has to have everything for himself. As well as his representation of this sin, he also portrays death. Even his last name is “Graves”, giving him a deadly feeling. As Graves lands a final blow to Scott, sending him to the same arid desert with the singular cactus, he delivers this line: “You can cheat on these ladies all you like, but you can’t cheat death,” (Wright). This indicates the fact that he characterizes Dante’s fear of dying without having any sort of impact on the world, shown through his midlife crisis. However, while in this desolate landscape, Scott states that he “feels like he learned something,” (Wright). This shows that through defeating all of the sins—or exes—he has gained something from it, even though he has died. Due to this realization, he has been given a “second life”, which is another one of the video game references in the film, and he is able to fight Gideon all over again. Readers of The Divine Comedy will recognize that the death of Scott is similar to how Dante finds himself in the afterlife, despite not actually being dead. This time, he realizes that the reasoning for fighting Graves is not to win Ramona over, but rather to prove his own worth, so he levels up and gains the power of “self-respect”, and beats the last—and largest—of Ramona’s exes. This is similar to how Dante finds the purpose for his life in Paradiso, in which he sees the love of his life, Beatrice.
Scott Pilgrim’s journey to fight and be with Ramona Flowers is punctuated by the arrivals of her seven exes, each one signifying one of the seven deadly sins, which are written in Dante’s Divine Comedy. Through fighting these exes, Scott discovers the reason for which he is living, and gets his life back on track. Akin to the ways that Dante the Pilgrim finds the meaning for his life in his journey through the epic poems Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso, they both find their respective purposes so that they can return to life—and in Dante’s case, return to Earth.
Alighieri, Dante, and Allen Mandelbaum. The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: Inferno: A Verse Translation. Bantam Books, 1982.
Alighieri, Dante, and Allen Mandelbaum. The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: Paradiso: A Verse Translation. Bantam Books, 1982.
Alighieri, Dante, and Allen Mandelbaum. The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: Purgatorio: A Verse Translation. Bantam Books, 1982.
Wright, Edgar, et al. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Universal Pictures, 2010.